How a myth is made....

How a Myth is Made...

Elder Thomas S. Monson from 1977

In the vicinity where I lived and served, we operated a poultry project. Most of the time it was an efficiently operated project supplying to the storehouse thousands of dozens of fresh eggs and hundreds of pounds of dressed poultry. 

General Conference - 1977

Deseret News - 2008

The Ensign - 2014

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from 1986

Many may know that young Bishop Monson took a week of his personal vacation time every Christmas season to visit all of those eighty-five widows in his ward. Many may not know that for the first several years the gift he would take them was one of the Barred Plymouth Rock or Rhode Island Red hens raised and dressed out by him in his own poultry coops. And although it has been more than thirty years since he was released as their bishop, President Monson has taken a gift and visited every one of those widows every Christmas for as long as each has lived. 

The Ensign - 1986

In 1994 Jeffery R. Holland version Jeffery Holland added two widows and add the fact that Monson left gifts purchase from his own pocket. 

"Nearly all of those eighty-seven widows are gone now, but their “bishop” kept visiting them to the end. One night during the Christmas holidays some years ago, President Monson was making his customary rounds to “his” widows, leaving gifts purchased from his own pocket, including plump dressed chickens that were, in the early years, raised in his own coops."

The Ensign - 1994

See Also:  Did Thomas Monson really speak at All 85 Widow's Funerals